A/N: Well, I finally got off my butt and started writing again. As usual, I'm trying to make this fic neither too cliché nor too confusing. Any advice to stop me from veering too far off the path would be welcomed and loved. Don't worry, next chapter will include a LOT of explanations.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Kingdom Hearts. Hell, I don't even own enough wittiness to make my own disclaimer semi-funny.

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"So, we're going to this Radiant Garden place, right?" LiS asked as he loaded the last duffel of his and Auron's possessions into Tifa's gummi ship.

"Yup, I'm only going to stay there for a bit though."

"Where are you going after that?"

"A place called Destiny Islands."

LiS raised an eyebrow. He had heard of the place from Auron, who had heard about it from Sora, but he couldn't see why Tifa would want to go there. "Why would you need to go there? I thought your issues were with this world."

"Well, it's a little complicated." LiS looked on eagerly at her, so she continued. "But explaining it to you couldn't hurt. Apparently, to find out what happened to my friend, I'm going to need to talk to this guy called Hades. But I won't be able to go to him unless I have a specific artifact from this place called the 'Olympus Stone.' Right now, Sora has the Olympus Stone, and he's in the Destiny Islands. Fortunately, the guys inside the stadium said that he'd probably be more than happy to lend it to me. I just need to let my friends at Radiant Garden know where I'm going. What about you? Are you planning on staying in the Garden?"

LiS shrugged. "I dunno, I'm just gonna stick with Auron. Although I want to learn more about Organization XIII. They're the ones who brought me here apparently."

Tifa smiled. "Best of luck to you then. I wish I could help, but haven't met any of the Organization. I've only heard about them from my friends at the Garden, so you'd be better off asking them when we get there."

"Hey!" Auron was leaning against the Gummi ship as he called over to LiS and Tifa. "We can't leave if you won't stop talking. Which one of you is going to get the new girl?"

"Can you get her LiS?" Tifa asked as she swung herself into the pilot seat. "I need to get things started here."

"Right, I'm on it!" LiS jogged the few yards to where the younger girl sat. She was holding onto an unadorned white staff, the only item besides her clothes she had on her after she fell through the portal. She was staring off into space with what looked like a forlorn expression. She had offered to help load the Gummi ship, but Auron clearly stated that he didn't want some one he just met touching his stuff. That shouldn't make her depressed, would it?

"Um, hey! We're going to leave in a couple minutes. The others told me to come get you. Are you ok?"

"Oh!" She turned around in surprise and almost fell over. "Yes, I'm fine, don't worry about it. Everyone says I look sad when I'm just thinking about something."

"You sure?"

"Yup!"

"Hmmm…" LiS looked at her like he didn't completely believe her story. "Well, anyway, we should get going. C'mon."

The girl nodded and followed right behind LiS. It made the blue-haired man somewhat uneasy, like this girl was almost too conditioned to follow orders. "Hey! You haven't told us your name yet! We can't keep on calling you 'you' or 'that girl over there' the entire time."

"Right, I'm sorry."

"Sorry? That's a sad little name. But it does fit you in a way. Not that it's an insult or anything! I mean, uh, Sorry can be a pretty name if you wear it the right way."

"LiS you idiot…" Auron was close enough to hear what was being said.

"Um, that's not what I meant." The girl cut in. "I'm called Inyxia."

"Right! Gotcha! That name's actually better than "Sorry" if you ask me. So, let's go on in! I've never been on a ship before, have you?"

Inyxia shook her head. "No, this'll be my first time too." She climbed into the Gummi ship and sat down in the seat farthest from any controls. Tifa sat in the pilot's seat, LiS sat near a window, and Auron took the chair next to LiS. The blue-haired young man was grinning widely as they took off and got to see the stadium from the air. He turned to look at Inyxia, to see if she was enjoying it, but she was already fast asleep.

"Um, Auron?" LiS nervously shook his guardian's shoulder.

"What is it?" Auron was actually having fun. It was his first time experiencing anything like this, but his pride wouldn't let him show his enjoyment.

"Inyxia- that's the new girl's name, she's asleep. You think there's something wrong with her?"

"LiS, I thought there was something wrong with her as soon as she dropped in. We don't know where she's from or who she works for, so we can't trust her. As for falling asleep, she probably did something tiring before going to the stadium. I wouldn't concern yourself with it."

"Ok." LiS shrugged and looked back out the window. "Tifa, do you know how much longer it'll take?"

"Only a few more minutes. These engines are pretty powerful. See, you can see the castle from here. Hold on! You should enjoy this."

LiS gulped and gripped onto his chair's armrests. "What are you doing?"

"Just a couple tricks Cid showed me. It's your first Gummi ride, right? Better make it memorable."

"But… but… the new girl's asleep! And I'm not so sure if Auron wants to go through with this…"

"LiS, I'm fine, you shouldn't be so jumpy. And I think the kid'll be fine, she's in her seatbelt after all."

"Ok! Here we go!" Tifa grinned and gunned the engines. The ship took a sharp turn and did a couple barrel rolls. Then she straightened the ship and flew in an upside-down loop.

"Wha- GAAAAH! NOT COOL, NOT COOL! PUT ME DOWNDOWNDOWNDOWN!"

Unfortunately, Inyxia had woken up at a rather inconvenient time.

"Sorry about that! Hang on, we'll get down in a sec. Just look outside for this last part if you aren't afraid. It's really pretty!"

LiS stared out his window again and was greeted by hundreds of light blue crystals surrounding a town that was crowned by a castle. As they dipped lower to the ground, they passed through a narrow archway that barely fit their ship. There was some sort of courtyard on the other side. It was only about thirty feet in diameter, but the entire thing was covered by a single blue tile engraved with the emblem of a four leaved clover…

He had seen that courtyard before in his dreams. But there had always been a door there too.

Coming here had turned out to be a pretty good idea after all.

"Hey! Tifa! Nice landing!" Yuffie was waiting by the landing pad. "We got this letter while you were gone, you should check it out. Who're your friends?"

"This is LiS, Auron, and Inyxia." Tifa pointed to each one in turn. "To make a long story short, they wanted a ride here and I had the room. Do you think it would be ok with Leon if they stayed at the Garden for a bit?"

"I think it'll be fine. C'mon, we've got loads of stuff to talk about. Bring the new people too!" Yuffie motioned for the group to follow her as she jogged to Merlin's house.

"Ok, not cool, can't do that again…" Inyxia was the last member in the group to leave the room. She was still shaking from her earlier shock. And then, there was the fact that this was that place. Of all the worlds, why did they go here?

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